Director of Business & Legal Affairs

BBC Group and Public Services; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent media organization is seeking a skilled leader for business and legal affairs in unscripted productions, focusing on stakeholder management and negotiation. This hybrid role, balancing office and home working, offers a competitive salary with additional benefits, including a substantial bonus. The successful candidate will play a critical role in ensuring the success of notable productions through effective leadership and legal support.

Benefits

35-hour working week

26 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Defined pension scheme

Remote GP access

Life assurance and accident benefit

Qualifications

• Comprehensive knowledge of media with experience at senior levels.
• Track record supporting unscripted productions and managing risks.
• Experience in concluding deals with UK broadcasters.

Responsibilities

• Lead business and legal affairs for unscripted productions.
• Manage high-profile negotiations and production risks.
• Ensure compliance with governance and policy frameworks.

Skills

Stakeholder Management

Negotiation

Problem-solving

Education

Experience in media sector

Understanding of rights landscape

Job description

Press Tab to Move to Skip to Content Link

Job Reference: 24447
Band: F
Salary:£150,000 -£180,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience plus London Weighting Allowance of £5,319 and 25% bonus. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
Location: Office Base is London This is a hybrid role, and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working.

ABOUT BBC STUDIOS

BBC Studios is a world-renowned content studio and channels & streaming business, powered by British creativity, with a reach that touches audiences in every corner of the globe.

We work with outstanding creative talent who are responsible for platform-defining shows from Strictly Come Dancing to Eastenders, Prehistoric Planet to Planet Earth III.

The range and quality of our content is unsurpassed, creating critical and commercial successes and global phenomena.

From BAFTAs to RTS Awards, BBC Studios is Britain’s most awarded production company and the only producer with three of the top ten shows on IMDB; we’re the home of bbc.com, the widest-read English language news website in the world; and the UK’s largest distributor of British content.

ABOUT THE TEAM

Business and Legal Affairs, Production, provides all the business and legal affairs support for the global Production business. This studio business spans production, content investment and funding/co-pro opportunities as well as our relationships with independent producers, whether as distributor or through strategic investment.

THE ROLE

This role leads Business & Legal Affairs for Unscripted working across the largest portfolio of unscripted productions in the UK, including the Natural History Unit, Science, Specialist Factual, Documentaries, UK Entertainment as well as with our unscripted indie partners. As such it is responsible for leading a team of c30 based across London, Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow bases. Reporting in to the Director of Business & Legal Affairs, Production, the role is fully embedded in the management team for the Unscripted genre and will work closely with the Managing Director, Unscripted and the Unscripted management team providing high quality business affairs support.

The role supports a wide variety of productions from The Americas, Walking with Dinosaurs, Tucci in Italy, Scam Interceptors, national events such as VE Day 80, The One Show, Weakest Link and Strictly Come Dancing, ensuring that all unscripted productions are supported with first class business affairs and legal advice, that deals are delivered quickly and commercially and that our teams are well supported, developed and thriving. The role is instrumental to delivery of our global growth plan.

We are a team that works flexibly and would welcome applicants who want to discuss different working patterns. We are also a team that champions inclusion and are committed to bringing diverse voices to the table.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Business Affairs Leadership:

• To lead business and legal affairs for all our unscripted productions, within a matrix structure, expertly managing issues through the production cycle and ensuring that contracting is delivered by our teams in a timely and commercial manner. To be a collaborative and proactive contributor to the management team in Unscripted.

Stakeholder Management:

• To confidently forge and maintain excellent relationships at all levels with the creatives in our production units and labels and with our buying partners (including with the BBC and with other UK and global/international commissioners, co-production partners, third party funders, invested and non-invested independent production companies, talent, agents, rights-owning bodies, trade organisations and regulators as necessary).

Negotiating:

• To lead or oversee negotiation of the most high profile, high risk or sensitive deals in Unscripted and to guide the team in negotiations.
• To expertly manage production risks across a high volume of productions including those that pose significant threat to the BBC‘s brand and reputation.

Governance and Compliance:

• To ensure applicable governance and policy and compliance frameworks are followed in Unscripted and be across all litigation, legal and compliance issues in Unscripted, engaging with appropriate experts internally and externally to resolve and reporting upwards as appropriate.

Operations:

• To develop ways of working to ensure business and legal affairs is well managed in Unscripted and kept as simple and efficient as possible and continually improving in line with the overarching approach to business and legal affairs operations in BBC Studios.

Group-wide teamwork:

• To work collaboratively with colleagues across BBC Studios and the BBC Group ensuring focus on goals and role-modelling great team-work in a matrixed environment.

Representation:

• To represent BLA at the most senior level with authority, credibility, tact and diplomacy. To be a recognisable and vocal ambassador and advocate of the strategy/growth plan and deal effectively at senior leadership level.

Team leadership:

• To provide inspirational leadership to the Unscripted BLA team, driving for high performance, supporting both their day-to-day delivery and their career development and creating an environment where each person can thrive and feels included. Develop and implement strong talent retention and acquisition plans.

BLA leadership:

• To work closely with the Director of Business & Legal Affairs, Production and the rest of the leadership team in Productions BLA to encourage good team work and togetherness across all BLA teams. To contribute to the development and training of individuals inside and outside of the team. To live, embrace and role model the BBC Group values and help develop and support a culture of trust, empowerment, collaboration, creativity and diversity.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

KEY CRITERIA:

• Comprehensive knowledge of the media sector, with demonstrable experience operating effectively at senior levels and a full grasp of the rightslandscape in the UK, underlying rights frameworks and how programming is being funded and commissioned. Highly business-oriented and commercially aware.
• Demonstrable track record effectively supporting unscripted productions and managing a wide variety of production risks.
• Demonstrable track record of concluding deals with the BBC and other UK broadcasters and experience of establishing, developing and maintaining long term strategic partnerships.
• Extensive experience of dealing with on-screen talent and their agents.
• Extensive commercial experience, advising on negotiating and contracting development, production, co-production, content financing arrangements, contributor/talent agreements, production services agreement, distribution and content licensing agreements.
• Experience of devising new models for financing and producing content.
• Comprehensive and up to date knowledge of the legal areas most frequently impacting production and content deals.
• Track record of collaboration with creatives and with commercial / business development.
• Strong demonstrable talent management and team leadership experience.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to switch course in response to market developments.
• Adept at dealing with conflicts and helping devise solutions where trade offs involved. Helps others resolve issues dispassionately.

DESIRABLE:

• Knowledge of, and experience in, digital/social media content production and brand extension.
• Experience of dealing with the global streamers.
• Experience of managing work across different time-zones and bridging cultural differences.
• Experience of innovating and leading change in a complex environment.
• Experience of devising news ways of working to streamline operations between production, commercial and other teams and BLA with the objective of delivering fast deal delivery.

LIFE AT BBC STUDIOS

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

The BBC is committed to building a culturally diverse workforce, that represents the audiences we serve, and encourages applications from candidates from any background, especially people from diverse communities. Equity of opportunity is important to us, and we endeavour to make our processes equal, fair and meritocratic for everybody. More information on our D&I plan can be found here.

BBC Studios puts sustainability at the heart of everything we do both onscreen and offscreen, including delivering against the BBC Group’s science-based Net Zero targets. More information on sustainability at BBC Studios can be found here.

We are proud to share that we are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer and if you require any reasonable adjustments in order to apply please contact us on [e-mail].

NEXT STEPS

We appreciate your interest in this position and understand how important this opportunity is to you. Due to the high volume of interest we may need to close the application period earlier than anticipated. This step is necessary to ensure we can provide a high level of attention and service to all applicants. Thank you for your understanding.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Redeployment

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC

At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Find out more about BBC Studios

Life at BBC Studios

• A flexible 35-hour working week with 26 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) and the option to buy an extra five days.
• Defined pension (up to 10% employer contributions).
• Caring and parenting support, 24/7 remote GP access, life assurance and accident benefit.
• BBC Studios is a world leader in operating sustainably both on and off screen. Find out more about BBC Group’s science-based Net Zero targets here .
• Career development in a values-led purpose-driven culture.

Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis.

Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.

Candidate pack

You belong

We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief.

Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.

Diversity, inclusion & belonging strategy

Disability confident

We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we’d be happy to discuss: [e-mail]

BBC Group and Public Services, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, United Kingdom, W1A 1AA. BBC Studios Distribution Limited, company no: 01420028, registered address: 1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London, United Kingdom W12 7FA.